Hello friends, I’m Smitha! My quarantine days are super busy as a mom! It becomes really hard to find a segment of time where I can just sit and create something for myself. Most of my arts and crafts will need to involve my kids, so that I can keep them occupied and learning. Every few weeks, I find myself staying up way too late into the night with my sketchbook itching to spend some calm creative time. I’m super tired and don’t want to really draw anything complex that requires attention to detail. So, I fill a page with what I’m calling Quarantine doodles.
I just quietly sit with my pen and fill a whole blank page with pen marks. You can create repetitive patterns, draw mandalas, or really just add pen squiggles. Simply putting pen to paper feels so satisfying.
Material list:
- MONO Drawing Pen 6-Pack
- Dual Brush Pen N15
- A sketchbook or dot grid journal
Step 1:
Start off with MONO Drawing Pen 05 and draw out the general layout of the doodle to fill the entire page. The MONO Drawing Pens are great for doodling as they come in various different sizes. I started with large leaves instead of flowers for a change. I love flowers and leaves and my default no brainer thing to doodle will always be flowers.
Step 2:
Fill in all the in-between areas with smaller leaves or flowers.
Step 3:
Start coloring in around the elements. You can use MONO Drawing Pen 08 for this, but I found it easier to use Dual Brush Pen N15 instead to flood the black color quickly. The brush tip is easy to control and you can apply a thick layer of color or use just that tip to color in finer areas.
I added a border around the doodles and colored inside the border only. This way, I have a few leaves and flowers falling outside the border and I love the way that looks!
Step 4:
With the bullet tip of the Dual Brush Pen, neaten some of the smaller floral outlines if needed.
Step 5:
On the facing page, color in the elements only and leave the background blank. You can also have the background a different color if you want! This just creates a nice optical illusion and adds so much interest to the page!
The whole page usually takes about 3 or 4 sittings to complete to my satisfaction. When I finish the page, I feel a little sigh of contentment within me.
While this page might not be a frame or display worthy, it brings out that feeling of happiness I used to have as a kid. Remember those days when we picked up our markers and drew on a page with no expectations of how it should turn out? Just creating for the sake of enjoyment.
Take a creative break friends. Draw something that doesn’t need to be perfect at all. Be kind to yourself.
If you need more inspiration for your quarantine doodles, check out this previous blog post of mine.
Thanks for joining me today!
Smitha
PS: If doodling flowers are your thing, enjoy this YouTube video of mine in which I show a few ways to use your MONO Drawing Pens. Click on the video box below to watch or you can check it out here.
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